Patrick Rodgers of Philadelphia gained some notoriety when he successfully sued Wells Fargo. But as far as Stephen Colbert is concerned, the real story went untold by the likes of CNN's Don Lemon.

'The Colbert Report' (Weeknights, 11:30PM ET on Comedy Central) showed Colbert mock-fiercely grilling Lemon about the Rodgers story.

"Did you not notice that he was a vampire?" Colbert asked Lemon. "At no point did your journalistic instincts click in and say, 'Hey, maybe that's a more interesting story'?"

Lemon admitted that he had noticed Rodgers' sharp incisors but that that wasn't the real story. So Colbert asked veteran newsman Dan Rather what he would have done in that situation.

Bringing in fresh voices from time to time on a veteran series can really energize things. That's what happened this week, as Seth MacFarlane's former writing assistant, Spencer Porter, stepped up to the big leagues and scripted one of the most unique episodes of 'Family Guy' in a very long time. In fact, in thinking about it now, I'm not even sure if there were any of the show's trademark cutaways.

Instead, we got tons and tons of surreal adventure right there in the main script. Stewie found Brian's script in order to set up Brian's adventure, and then spent the rest of the episode with a massive head wound. Considering Stewie's popularity, it was a brave move to remove him from the episode for so long.

When NBC was promoting Brian Williams' fifth anniversary as anchor of the NBC Nightly News, I figured it was a good opportunity to ask him a few questions. After all, with two wars, a lousy economy, the health care debate, and Tiger Woods, there's lots of news going on right now.

And, in such a relatively short period of time, the news landscape has changed on both the broadcast and the cable fronts, including the fact that on Monday, when Diane Sawyer takes over ABC's World News, he'll be the only male evening news anchor left.

Williams (or as he's been called lately, BriWi) was nice enough to answer some questions via e-mail about his new competition and how he lets his famous sense of humor come through during a serious newscast. Finally, he gives me some insight into what he's listening to right now (if you've seen previous interviews with him, he leans more towards the college radio side).

For once the info coming from CBS News is not about whether Katie Couric's job is in jeopardy. Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer has decided not to retire after all; he's staying with CBS News indefinitely.

The veteran newsman, who'll be 72 this year, had announced his retirement. He was going to leave the Black Rock as of the January presidential inauguration. Now he's decided to postpone the rocking chair. According to TV Week, the network didn't have to twist his arm; the deal was easily and simply done. All Schieffer had to do was get his wife Pat's approval and he was able to tell CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus asked him not to step down as planned with the inauguration of a new president that he would remain.

After a New York court dismissed most of the claims in Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against his former employer, CBS, he was told he could resubmit the suit. So Rather, never one to back down from a fight, did just that. He filed an amended suit that now claims that he met with other broadcast and cable networks, but didn't get offered jobs by them because, as the suit claims, he had "too much baggage" after the Bush / National Guard incident that eventually led to his departure from CBS.

CBS's lawyers are pretty confident that the suit will be dismissed a second time, but all Rather wants to do is get to the bottom of what happened with the story about the president's Guard record, which he still stands behind.

"I've never lost sight of the fact that this is a long, hard, expensive road and the odds are against," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I knew that going in. I've known that every hour I've been in it. I'm in this alone. I bear the whole, total expense, which comes out of my pocket.

(S19E10) "To Springfield!"

"Which one?"

"The one where The Simpsons live."

My oh my, was this a jam-packed episode of The Simpsons or what? I haven't seen this many sight gags in one installment of the show for the longest time. Not only that, but this was probably the first episode of the season where Homer and the rest of the family took a back seat to the rest of Springfield's citizens.

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We are just days away from the presidential primary season (Thank God!) and there seems to be a late entry into the race for the White House. No, it's not Michael Bloomberg (although they say he wants to), Al Gore (although they really want him to) or Rosie O'Donnell (they really say nothing about her). It's actually nose-picking, glue-eating, bed-wetting, slightly mis-educated Ralph Wiggum.

Gosh, he'll fit right in, won't he?

Ralph will announce his candidacy on the January 6th episode of The Simpsons. Actually, he isn't the one who announces it; rather, the voters of Springfield, who reject all of the other candidates in their first primary, write the young Wiggum in as a candidate. He quickly becomes an independent presidential front-runner that party leaders for both the Republicans and the Democrats want to have in their court.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog: I apologize for the bad sound quality; I'm live from a golf cart. Have a great weekend!

• CBS says they aren't out to get Dan Rather.
  
• Please watch out for trucks. Don't be like Dr. Phil, who just got hit by one.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today: on TV Squad Daily:

• Dan Rather is feistier than I expected. He's suing CBS and Viacom for 70 million dollars.
  
• Who knew Klingon jokes were such hot property? Stephen Colbert is accused of stealing one from Cenk Uygur.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

What, Eddie Haskell suing someone isn't enough for you today? OK, how about this: former CBS anchor Dan Rather is suing CBS for $70 million. Also named in the suit are CBS CEO Les Moonves, Sumner Redstone, and former CBS news chief Andrew Heyward.

The lawsuit claims that the network forced him to step down from The CBS Evening News and did not give him enough time on 60 Minutes. He also claims that because of all this, the network aired a "biased" and "incomplete" investigation into the National Guard story and seriously hurt his reputation. New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg broke the story earlier this afternoon. Rather is currently an anchor on HDNet.

Now let's see if Katie Couric (or Harry Smith, if he's still filling in) reports this story on tonight's show.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Dan Rather said the word "tart," and suddenly everybody's talking about the evening news.
  
• Donald Trump's has a new reality show in the works, Lady or a Tramp.
  
• Are we being punished? Veronica Mars fans won't get a new season, but they might get a comic book instead.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

It's too bad that I don't have a hi-def TV, because I'm starting to get curious about the dizzying array of programming Mark Cuban is making available on his HDNet network. First, he hired Dan Rather to do in-depth reports on current affairs on the hour-long Dan Rather Reports, and now he has... model boxing! Brett talked about Perfect 10 Model Boxing last month; essentially, it's hot chicks in tiny shorts and tops punching each other. Not much more to say about it than that, other than the fact that the show's sponsor, Perfect 10 magazine, shows nude photos of women that aren't surgically enhanced.

So, how does Gunga Dan feel about sharing a channel with fighting hotties? New York Magazine found out; he doesn't have a problem with it, though he doesn't think he'd watch it in his house. Sure, Dan. I'm sure your mind will change when your wife's away on a long weekend.

[via Mediabistro]

We knew that Dan Rather was still going to be kicking around, didn't we? The old coot's just too feisty to go away retire; even after quietly leaving CBS after 44 years of service (the last 2 of which were, shall we say, a bit contentious), he'll still be on our TV screens, or at least a small fraction of them.

Just as the rumors predicted, Rather signed with Mark Cuban's HDNet to do a weekly newsprogram called Dan Rather Reports. He'll also be appearing as a guest panelist on Chris Matthews' syndicated show and will be talking to Larry King about his new venture tonight. And I'm sure he'll be giving plenty of "exclusive" interviews to the critics gathered at this week's Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, as he has arrived there yesterday to promote his new venture with Cuban. Now that he's unfettered by his relationship with CBS, I'm curious to hear what spills out of Dan's mouth about his exit. This might get interesting.

After a couple of days of speculation, CBS News made it official today: Dan Rather is leaving the network after 44 years. His contract was supposed to run out in November, but he negotiated an early release because a) he wasn't being used much and b) he could not get a new contract from the network that guaranteed he would get work.

The network is working on a retrospective of Rather's career, which will air in the fall. They will also make a contribution to his alma mater, Sam Houston University.

So what's Rather's next step? Well, he may work for Mark Cuban's HDNet, or he may do something else. But chances are, this isn't the last we've seen of Gunga Dan.

[via Mediabistro]

Since CBS no longer needs his services, Dan Rather is reportedly mulling over an offer to host a weekly news program for HDNet. The network is owned by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The deal would establish Rather as the host and producer of a one-hour news program. Rather told The New York Times that he also has offers from two other networks but he's leaning toward the HD thing.

I don't have HDTV so I've never seen the network but, I have to wonder, does 74-year-old old-fashioned newsman Dan Rather match with the network?